Hmmm ....
so far I restrained myself from commenting in this thread as I saw a lot of emotions set free in the discussion. Well it seems that it did calm down some and so I dare to do so – just to give my point of view:
As I love Kitely for the wide options and the freedom it provides at unprecedented cost for the user, I definitely would like to contribute to the community whereever my skills may be of use and time is manageable (the last part causing the the most restrictions as I - like so many - have some work to do for a living in rl and a not to forget – a private life in rl as well).
With regard to community projects I'd like to focus on someting that helps convincing the web 2.0 community that Kitely is
not just one more OpenSim grid among so many others, but that Kitely is a place where players like to play and interact with each other.
Kitely has seen some initiatives lately, that start to move in this direction, like the events organized by Freda , Shandon and Serene, the great April Hunt and the events boards from Dundridge, Selby and Deuce. However this is still not drawing a lot of in-world presence and activity - especially not by newcomers. This seems to me a general OpenSim problem and we can solve it only by offering uniqueness, a broader diversity of options and - even more important - by making people aware - beyond Kitely borders in the Metaverse and among SL refugees - of what Kitely has to offer.
While keeping Kitely's strength - great showcase worlds, active & responsive community and high level grid technology - we need to drive an aspect more that - in my eyes - still causes the largest gap to the SL-experience:
The combination of animated chatroom with a high level of avatar-interaction with other players and player-interaction with the region. A symptom for this lack of interaction is e.g. the missing of the most simple binary interaction, a hug & kiss -HUD. A successful virtual world lives to a significant degree from empathy between players - spontaneous roleplay reflecting the whole palette of emotions life has to offer. In more than one year in Kitely I have not seen any such interaction between players beyond IM and Forum discussions. For one because there is very limited option to do iteractive play, secondly because Kitely has not been able to motivate players, who would like to do so, to stay and spend time in Kitely.
So my focus on community projects likely will be to work against this percieved deficit. I think Kitely needs strong interactive tools minimum at the same level, but ideally in some aspects unique / superior, to what they know from other vw’s including SL. My focus for the rest of 2014 will be on improved single- and multiposing and on videoboards which I’m happy to discuss for use and customization and make them available in any community-build project that may have need for that.
Don't count on me for documentation (simply not my thing) or organizing regularly sheduled events (need to stay flexible due to rl obligations).
Spontaneous events .....that's a different story - I might go for it occasionally and hope that more then one or two show up (so far 3 make a crowd in OpenSim already).
Cheers
Min